Jane Eyre Presentation - burn inwardly… bottled up inside...

Jane Eyre Presentation Chapters 34 and 35 12 Nov 2007 Fire and Ice Symbolism • “By degrees, he acquired a certain influence over me that took away my liberty of mind… I fell under a freezing spell.” (404-5) o Jane knows that her own passion and desires will be frozen if she marries St. John—frozen still as in put off, or killed (?) • “Renewed hope followed renewed effort: it shone like the former for some weeks then, like it, faded, flickered… my hope died out: and then I felt dark indeed.” (406) o Jane describes her hope as fire—when it flickered and died out, she feels dark • “[B]ut as his wife… forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, thought the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital— this would be unendurable.” (415) o Jane’s own passions, as St. John’s wife would not be her own—they would

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Unformatted text preview: burn inwardly… bottled up inside her…it could also mean that it would eat her up inside to not be able to act on her own desires • “Reader, do you know … what terror those cold people could put into the ice of their questions?” (419) • “While earnestly wishing to erase from his mind the trace of my former offence…I had burnt it in.” (420) Fire and Ice Imagery in Physical Appearance and Emotion • “glow of fervor and flow of joy” (401) o “Glow” insinuates light, as in fire shows on St. John’s sisters’ faces • “you are always agitated and pale” (422) o Agitated and pale are paired up—Jane lacks warm content or joy • “I put her cool hand to my hot forehead.” (422) o The heat of her forehead indicates that there is a “fire” or a passion within her....
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